“… all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.   Ezekiel 3:10

She put on her church face and got ready to lie…

“How are you today?” asked the greeter at the door…

“Fine,” she answered.

But as she said the words, she turned her eyes toward the floor.

She passed an acquaintance as she walked toward her seat.

How’s everything going for you?” he asked.

“Great,” she replied.  But she sighed and looked again at the floor….

She sat next to a friend.

“How’s your day?” asked the friend.

She hesitated…

“Couldn’t be better.”  She tried to smile as she said the words, but her lips quivered slightly.

Her friend looked straight ahead for a moment, then turned to her.

“How do you really feel?  Tell me the truth.”

Silent tears rolled down her cheeks.  Her friend stood and took her hand.

They walked to the lobby and sat in a quiet corner.

For nearly an hour, she talked and her friend listened.  There were tears.  There were hugs.

There was prayer.  There was no advice.

Her friend had heard an unspoken plea:

“Listen to me.   Just listen to me.”

She responded to that plea with love…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  Mark 12:30-31

The first duty of love is to listen.  Paul Tillich

Does that mean our first duty to God and to people is to listen?

How often I am ready with advice for others…

How often I am full of words when I come to God…

Words that drown out his whisper…

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

1 Kings 19:11-12

Will we listen for the whispered pleas of our friends?

Will we listen for the whispers of God?

“Be still, and know that I am God…”  Psalms 46:10

Editor's note: This post was first published on May 9, 2014